According to Prof. Dimitar Vatsov, the tragedy was not limited to the first days after the explosion. The real crime happens in the months of systematic cover-up. While in Scandinavia and Poland the alarm is already ringing at the end of April, in our country the official announcements say that “everything is fine”.
“They mixed highly radioactive milk with low radioactive”
The most cynical aspect of state policy has been the method of dilution. Prof. Vatsov reveals a shocking scheme for “decontamination” of the food chain: “You take highly radioactive milk and mix it with low-radioactive milk in order to distribute the radiation more evenly and get within the norms – this was a systemic state policy.”
This tactic ensured that almost no Bulgarian was left untouched. While the common people consumed these ‘cocktails’, the high nomenclature of 200-300 families were on a special supply where ‘every morsel of their food was checked’.
A little-known fact that Vatsov’s book brings to light is the huge exposure a year after the accident. In the winter of 1987, radiation levels in food reached values close to those of the first days of the disaster. The reason? The authorities feed the animals with fodder harvested during the radioactive fallout in May 1986.
“Why did they give the infected feed to the animals – the only explanation is that nothing was thrown,” commented the professor.
The scientists from the VMA and the Agricultural Academy have sounded the alarm many times, but their reports have sunk into the drawers.
The result of this “economy” is devastating to the nation’s health. Prof. Vatsov cites data from international organizations that put Bulgaria in the top positions in the blackest statistics: “We are first in terms of infecting children’s thyroid glands and we are in first place in terms of general irradiation of people’s bodies throughout Europe.”
By the time 40,000 Bulgarians ran “for health” in the marathon in May 1986, kicking up clouds of radioactive dust, the authorities had already rejected a list of 14 mandatory hygiene and safety measures. Today, 40 years later, “Bulgarian Chernobyl” is a reminder that the regime’s silence was as toxic as epibatidine itself.
